Apr 9, 2014

A sketchy report from Taiwan suggests that Apple is having problems producing enough iPhone 6 units with large 5.5-inch displays for the planned launch event in September, so the company will reportedly push availability of the bigger handset to winter.

Highly incredible but also impossible to rule out, the claim comes from EMSOne, which interpreted a Taiwanese Industrial & Commercial Times report as saying that the 4.7-inch version will enter production first and this model will be first to launch to the masses in the September-October timeframe. Later in the year, around Christmas apparently, the larger 5.5-inch model will be deployed, according to the report. Apple is said to be having difficulties making enough of the high-quality displays for the larger version, which bodes well with earlier reports, including one from Reuters earlier this month. Rumors of Apple launching two all-new iPhones this year abound, much like last year when the Cupertino giant was said to be developing a plastic-encased version of the smartphone targeting a lower price point.

Since then, Tim Cook & Co. have learned that people don’t necessarily want something cheap out of Apple, and it looks like the company will again shift full focus on design and features, making no compromise in materials and production costs for the sake of a few lousy market share points. Renderings created by Ferry Passchier (above) based on leaked schematics suggest that the next-generation iPhone will look a lot like the current-selling iPod touch line. Retaining the Touch ID Home button and some other design elements, the iPhone 6 would sport an edge-to-edge display while still retaining the top and bottom frames. Some would hope that Martin Hajek’s renderings (below) are more plausible, especially considering how busy Apple is cooking up copious amounts of sapphire for an unannounced product.

There are several other indications that the Cupertino tech juggernaut is planning to finally expand the screen size. One such hint comes from a set of leaked internal slides stemming from the Apple – Samsung legal dispute currently unfolding. In the respective documents, Apple downright admits that customers want larger screens and that the company needs to do something about the growing Android army of phones with displays larger than those of the iPhone line. Even a 4.7-inch screen is a considerable uptick from the current 4-inch spec on the iPhone 5s, let alone 5.5 inches.